The present invention is directed to staple removing methods and apparatus and more particularly to a method and apparatus for disengaging staples from documents bound together by the staples.
While there exists a variety of staple removing devices and mechanisms, none adequately resolves the problem faced by many facilities which must process large numbers of documents with the attendant necessity of removing staples therefrom.
The most familiar of the staple removers is the manually operated claw-like device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,033,050. Other manual staple removing devices do exist, such as a lever which is slid under the crown of the staple for the purpose of prying the staple from the document. While these devices are adequate for low volume manual staple removal, they do not solve the problems faced by large volume commercial document processing facilities.
While these deficiencies have been appreciated, the various approaches, and attempts to provide apparatus for high volume automatic staple removal have been highly complex and not particularly successful. Most of these apparatus utilize the staple pulling technique, such as are illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,126,195 and 3,528,643.
One problem with such apparatus and mechanisms is that in order to pull a staple it is necessary to find it. If staples were always in the same position and orientation on documents such devices might operate quite satisfactorily. It needs no long dissertation to appreciate that documents are rarely stapled together at identical locations, although some automatic machines may be able to achieve this result. However, most documents have not been stapled together by such automatic staplers, and staples may be located almost anywhere.
British Pat. No. 1,025,210 discloses another approach in an attempt to overcome this problem. In the British patent, the stapled documents are placed between two conductive members which are closed on the metallic staple. An electric current is then passed between the electrodes through the staple to effect separation of portions of the staple through which the current passes. As disclosed in said British patent, the staple must still be properly positioned between the electrodes so that electrical contact can be made. In addition, the apparatus disclosed in the British patent requires complex and/or expensive mechanical, hydraulic and electrical components.
The deficiencies of all these mechanisms suggests that an apparatus and method for rapidly and automatically separating staples from a plurality of stapled documents with a minimum of effort and without the necessity of precisely positioning and locating the staple would be highly desirable.